DeLa Express Pipeline vetted at public meeting
Jun. 18—Moss Lake Partners of Houston is holding informational meetings Tuesday in Odessa to unveil their multibillion-dollar DeLa Express Pipeline project on which they hope to start construction in the second quarter of 2026 and put into operation in the second or third quarter of 2028.
The first session was held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Lawndale Community Center in northwestern Odessa, where public interest appeared minimal as almost nobody was there except representatives of Moss Lake Partners and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which must approve the plan because it would cross the Texas-Louisiana state line into Calcasieu Parish after traversing 21 Texas counties. A second session will be held from 5-8 p.m. at the Lawndale Community Center.
Moss Lake Senior Vice President for Regulatory, Environmental and Government Affairs Chris Thiele of Houston said his company looks forward to completing the line because it would move two billion cubic feet per day of natural gas 690 miles from near Red Bluff in Loving County to Port Arthur and the Moss Lake-owned Hackberry Liquefied Natural Gas Export Terminal in Cameron Parish, La.
It would join the soon-to-be-opened Matterhorn Express line from the Waha Hub near Coyanosa southwest of Odessa to Katy west of Houston, which didn't require FERC approval because it's all inside the state.
Energy industry spokesmen say the 42-inch diameter lines, buried three to five feet deep in the ground, will be greatly beneficial to stabilize the price of gas and get power to consumers. The DeLa is named for the Delaware Basin west of Midland and Louisiana.
Thiele said the 14 informational meetings his company is holding in Texas this month are to apprise the public and particularly the affected landowners what the project's timeline is and what it would entail construction-wise.
He said questions and comments may be submitted at 1-877-335-2397 or [email protected]. The project's website is at delaexpress.com.
"We started in East Texas and are working west," Thiele said, noting that the turnouts are much bigger in towns and cities where there is less familiarity with the oil and gas business. "We had 180 people in Huntsville and good participation at Moody and Gatesville."
The Lawndale Community Center was decked out with an array of colorful information boards saying, for example, that compressor stations would be built in the counties of Winkler, Midland, Sterling, Runnels, Brown, Coryell, Robertson, Walker and Liberty.
FERC is scheduled to issue a draft environmental impact statement in the fourth quarter of next year after Moss Lake files a permit application in February. The final EIS will be due in the first quarter of 2026 for FERC to issue a notice to proceed and start construction in the second quarter.
FERC Office of Public Participation spokesman John Peconom of Washington, DC., told the Odessa American that his agency is required by the National Environmental Policy Act to take every possible precaution to mitigate the hazards of leaks and explosions.
Peconom said FERC's role is to review the construction plans and proposed sites where the line would be laid and the compressor stations built and to get feedback from the public.
"We want to know what people's concerns are so that those may be minimized and mitigated," he said.
Moss Lake Senior Vice President of Projects Eric Carmichael said it hadn't been determined how thick the walls of the pipeline will be or what type of steel will be used, but he said his company will deal only with the most reputable engineering firms and construction companies.
